Two Lives
by Wisteria the Cat
Summary: Honestly, I was expecting to be reborn. I just wasn't expecting to be reborn twice. Semi-SI; Rated T; NO ROMANCE
1. First Life: Rebirth

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* * *

I died.

No, really. I died.

One moment I was walking around, eating ice cream.

The next moment, I was dead.

I don't know how I died.

It could've been choking on a piece of strawberry, it could've been from tripping straight into a busy street...

Huh.

Anyways, back to the present.

It was warm and dark, squished with another body.

When could I feel?

Must be a mind trick.

I was contemplating on the feeling of the other body before I was forcefully ejected into a cold environment.

Okay, maybe not ejected, but it felt like it.

I screamed.

Loudly.

Murmurs of foreign language washed over me, mixing so that I couldn't hear a single voice. Then a beat of silence and another scream.

I shivered involuntarily and felt something wrap around my body.

Am I dead? In a coma? Undead?

 _So tired..._

Those questions could wait. I needed to sleep.

* * *

I still didn't know whether or not I was dead.

I mean, the human consciousness can stay for a bit after a person dies.

When I mean a bit, I meant until the brain itself stops sending signals.

So I could completely and totally die and my soul (did I even have one?) would be forced to wander for eternity.

Joy.

Or, as in the oh-so-many fanfictions that are currently (or were, considering I still don't know whether I was even alive) circulating the internet, reincarnation.

Actually, more like reincarnation with memories intact and fully functional.

Memories definitely don't help when you have _no idea where and when you are_.

Or if you are dead.

Problem is, I felt as if I was stuck in a limbo. I couldn't tell the time, but I could sense it passing.

Probably not dead then.

Hours and days seemed to blend together, punctuated by hunger pangs, sleep and uncomfortable wet feelings near my butt.

Giant blurred things came and went, cooing words and phrases that didn't make any sense.

My situation became clear.

I had been reborn.

* * *

I was constantly surrounded by people and they tended to all my needs.

After a while, my vision started to clear. I could clearly see the faces of the ones who were, in a sense, caretakers.

The hairstyle and clothing of the caretakers that interested me the most.

The women wore their hair low and secured it with strips of cloth. Their clothing was simple, dresses dyed blue and purple and secured around the waist with a red cloth. The men, although seldom seen, wore tunics and their hair over their ears.

 _Feudal Asia…?_

The language started to make sense. I could occasionally hear a "Kaguya-hime" and a "Hagoromo-sama and Hamura-sama".

 _Feudal Japan then._

I finally managed to turn my head. A white-haired baby with a pair of horns laid on my other side, blank white eyes staring right into mine.

I stared more.

I reached out to touch the horns. The baby giggled.

They were real.

What?

So… supernatural beings existed?

What was I then?

Being careful not to gouge my own eyes out, I guided my pudgy hands towards my forehead.

Horns here too.

Feudal Japan with a supernatural twist?

Alright then.

* * *

I could finally walk.

So could my twin.

Actually, I'm not sure whether or not he was my twin.

We would wander around and we're picked up if we went where we weren't supposed to.

We also moved on to semi-solid food.

Cue the epic food fights.

Just kidding. We couldn't feed ourselves just yet.

Eh.

The language started to make more sense and I started to speak.

"Ha-ha-Hamuru!"

"No, no. You are Hagoromo. Ha-go-ro-mo." The woman smiled at my attempt.

I tried again. "Haguuuuuuuuuuuuuu."

She laughed. "Try one more time."

"Haguru-" the rest turned into unintelligible gurgles.

She turned to my twin. "You are Hamura. Ha-mu-ra."

The other (Hamura, I deduced, seeing that I'm now Hagoromo) gave a toothy grin and shrieked.

The woman and I winced.

It was okay.

I screamed louder.

* * *

I was two.

Hamura was quickly proving himself to be a hyperactive demon.

He would literally run around in circles just to burn off all the excess energy. After he exhausted all forms of energy, he crashed face-first into the floor to sleep.

There were a lot of tiny holes left by him.

I, on the other hand, was less of a menace (to our caretaker's relief) but constantly questioned her about what was outside.

I don't think she liked either of us.

Oh well.

It was around the same time that our biological mother started to play with us.

Really, all she did was stare at us. It was kind of creepy.

I could manage. Hamura, apparently, couldn't so he always toddled after her before he set his sight on me.

"Nii-'aan!"

I shuddered and went to go hide.

Horrible times indeed.

* * *

By this time, I figured I was a boy.

I didn't really care.

I mean, I was alive, so it shouldn't matter, right?

Meh.

Our mother finally allowed us to go out the house.

Hamura was happy because he could run around more. I was happy because I could finally figure out what time period we- _I_ was in.

Being in the past sucked. You didn't know whether or not any of your actions would cause something.

Butterfly effect anyone?

Though, to be honest, correlation does not necessarily mean causation.

Of course, me being here would've already caused a tsunami of random changes anyway.

Would this create a time loop?

Ugh. I hate time paradoxes.

Anyways, the surrounding areas didn't look familiar nor did the building style (meanwhile, I cursed at my inattentiveness during history class) but that huge tree on the horizon did strike a chord in me.

I didn't know why.

* * *

"Hamura?"

"Nii-san?"

"I'm stuck."

It was, admittedly, entirely my fault.

Here I was, stuck in a tree and Hamura just staring at me.

Stuck _in_ a tree.

I wanted to test how strong my horns were, so I charged headfirst into the nearest tree.

I tried to dislodge my head from the tree but to no avail.

Probably shouldn't have done that.

Hamura wrapped his arms around me and pulled while I pushed at the tree.

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" He let loose a battle cry and tugged hard.

We flew back and tumbled on the ground. I landed on my back while Hamura landed on his face.

So blue…

The sky looked limitless and bright from a toddler's perspective, but it was never this clear back in the twenty-first century.

Wispy clouds ambled around in the sky and the sun shone gently down on the earth.

I turned my head sideways. Lush, green forests filled the rest of the land untouched by civilization. Hamura snuggled next to me, already snoring away. The tranquil atmosphere also made me doze off.

 _I guess this life isn't too bad after all..._

* * *

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	2. Childhood Dreams

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* * *

Soon enough, we turned five.

Since we were technically nobility, we were able to learn the written language and miscellaneous scraps of knowledge.

The written language was a derivation from Chinese but not really.

I was still cursing my inattentiveness during history class in my previous life.

It was kind of weird though. There weren't any other nobles.

None.

Absolute zero.

Also, shouldn't there be more people?

There were no merchants, no traveling sages, no messengers.

On the rarest occasion, when someone did come, our mother would usher us out of sight and into our rooms.

Odd.

* * *

Our room was a simple room, with two small bed-like furniture and a small table. It was mostly filled with clay figures and books.

We would often invent games with what we had.

I may have accidentally introduced shogi way before it's time.

Whoops.

There were no guards outside the compound, no samurai, nothing related to war.

Wasn't this period still fighting over territories?

Eh, peace is better than war.

* * *

At six, Hamura finally out-grew his hyperactive state but became a little more hot-tempered.

"NII-SAN! YOU TOOK KATSU!"

Katsu was his favorite toy, which looked like a deformed duck.

"NO I DIDN'T!"

"DID TOO!"

"DID NOT!"

"DID TOO!"

"DID NOT!"

"DID TOO!"

Were those veins bulging? Why did he seem to finally have pupils?

 _Crash._

I gaped. The nearest wall was entirely demolished. Hamura stood in the rubble, dark aura permeating the room.

"Nii-san…"

 _Crap._

I hightailed out of the house, with Hamura in hot pursuit.

I ran as fast as I could into the forest, throwing sticks and whatever to quell his rage.

They all turned into dust by his hand.

 _Meep._

Without thinking, I dived into the ground, swimming into the earth, right below the surface.

I could feel him stop on top of my spot, looking around.

Then the ground cracked and I was forced upward.

"Found youuuuu~"

 _Oh FU-HOW?_

I felt my eyes burn. Everything seemed to slow down. Hamura's fist descended in slow motion.

I rolled out of the way and kept running.

When I reached the edge of a small stream I whirled around.

He burst into the clearing, fist ready to ki-horribly maim me.

I sidestepped.

He fell into the stream with a splash.

"Nii-san? What happened to your eyes?" Hamura returned to his normal demeanor. He sat up in the water, looking at me.

"Finally…" I panted before collapsing from exhaustion.

"NII-SAN!"

* * *

It was warm.

I opened my eyes. I was back in our room. The wall was fixed.

I sat up. My entire body ached.

"Ow."

"NII-SAN!" A human missile knocked me back down. Hamura's eyes were red and puffy. "I'MSORRYIDIDN'TMEANITITHOUGHTYOUDIEDAND-AND-" He took a deep breath and started wailing.

"I'm okay," _Not._ "Are you okay, Hamura?" I ruffled his hair. He pouted.

"Kaa-san picked you up and carried you!"

 _Not what I asked, but okay._

"It seems you are awake."

Ow.

Whiplash obtained!

Rubbing my neck, I turned to our mother.

"Kaa-san." I bowed my head respectfully.

"How do you feel, Hagoromo?"

"It hurts."

"Where?" She moved closer.

"Everywhere."

"I see." She brought a glowing hand to my chest. Almost instantly, the aches were gone.

"Thank you."

Our mother left.

Glorious silence for about…

"Why are you so weird with Kaa-san? You never act like that around me."

… Five seconds.

"Hush, Hamura. It's called being polite."

Definitely a new record.

* * *

I couldn't stop rubbing my eyes.

They weren't inflamed, but there was always that tingly feeling of something in my eye.

We were playing around a small pond (Hamura was; I opted to sit and stare at the clouds) when my twin stopped right in front of me.

"Nii-san, why do you keep rubbing your eyes?"

"Because they're itchy."

The eyes burned again.

"Your eyes!"

I looked at the pond's surface.

Instead of the blank white eyes I had, a trait shared with my brother and mother, a pair of crimson irises stared back at me.

 _What._

Did I just… evolve?

Oh crap, how am I supposed to explain this to our mother?

Right then, the red bleached back to white.

I sighed in relief.

Hamura looked like he was about to burst. "That's so cool nii-san! Can you do it again? Can you teach me how to do it? What do you do with it? How did you do-mmmpgh!"

I covered his mouth with my hand.

"Hamura? Can you keep it a secret?" For some reason, I felt that our mother wouldn't take the news well.

"Wha-alright! I promise!"

I smiled gently. "Thank you… Hamura."

"WAAAH! You're being weird again!" Hamura ran away.

"You little brat…" I muttered underneath my breath, but without malice.

I chased after him.

* * *

I just wanted to have strawberry ice cream.

Now that I'm in feudal Japan, all dreams of ice cream were crushed.

It hadn't been invented yet.

Or the internet.

Or cheese.

Or soy sauce.

 _Sigh._

At least I have miso.

"Wow! What's that?"

"Shh. Be quiet."

A small wolf-dog slowly revealed itself, yellow eyes glancing warily at us.

Hamura stared on with amazement.

The wolf-dog was tackled by three pups, who yipped. They tussled around for a bit before going back to the depths of the forest.

Hamura started mouthing words rapidly, occasionally making a raspy whisper.

I deadpanned at him. "You can speak now. They're gone."

I wasn't prepared for the onslaught of nonsensical words.

* * *

When we were nine, I reached out to the human children.

Hamura tagged along since he didn't have anything better to do.

I went around the human village, recruiting minio- _friends_.

One family had eight children.

 _Eight._

I think it was because they thought some of them would die before adulthood.

But because our mother (Kaguya, I reminded myself) had the ability to heal all sicknesses, all of them survived.

Yup.

Tsuki, Kuro, Kaze, Sora, Mitsu, Yami, Shio and Kiri were within the range of eight to nineteen. Kaze, Sora and Kiri were boys.

Iwa and Suna, eleven and nine respectively, were a pair of brothers whose father was a mason.

Konoha was an orphan and liked to work with wood. He was about ten, but it was hard to tell.

I wasn't sure whether or not Konoha was a boy or girl.

Kumo, who was also eight, was the blacksmith's son and would often help his father in the forge.

Haori was the daughter of a servant and the same age as us, so we saw her the most.

Shika, ten, stayed in the forest, tending to deer that his family owned.

I asked them to come to the village's center so we could play a game.

Out of the eight, Yami, Shio and Kiri came. The rest were all too busy with life.

Iwa, Suna, Kumo, Konoha and Shika came because I did _not_ kidnap them.

Seriously.

Haori came because she had to.

Now that I think about it, Naruto theme much?

Eh. Probably just a coincidence.

"So," I began, clapping my hands to get their attention. "Let's play tag! Boundaries are within the walls. We play 'til we get lunch."

"What's tag?" Shio questioned.

I blinked. "Alright. If you're "it", you have to tag someone else like...this!" I tagged Hamura.

"You're it!"

"Hey! No fair, nii-san!"

* * *

There was a type of energy that I couldn't explain.

At first, I wrote it off as some kind of magic.

After the Red-Eye Mode, I had a clearer picture of what the energy was.

The energy was present in living beings and the environment. It thrummed and flickered like a small flame.

The last time Red-Eye Mode was active, I noticed that Hamura had a complex system of the energy circulating his body.

So did mother.

All the other beings didn't. All the energy was centered around their abdomen and was weak compared to Hamura and Kaguya.

I dubbed it "chakra".

However, the chakra was slowly depleting in the world. It was sucked into one spot, where something like a sleeping beast resided.

Huh.

I could worry about that later. I needed to run from Hamura.

Again.

* * *

 **Please review!**

 **2000kate and calcu22: I hope future chapters will also be interesting to you!**

 **RadioPoisoning: The protagonist doesn't know (yet) that he is in the Naruto world and thinks he's in feudal Japan. So, uh... yeah. We'll see how that plays out.**

 **shiny-cat: I'm sort of basing this time era off feudal Japan and what I could get from both the anime and manga. Right now, it's a little AU-y because in the anime, Hagoromo awakens the Sharingan during adolescence while here he awakens it at age 6.  
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	3. Blinded Reality

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 **Warning: Some swearing and blood.  
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 **EDIT: Thank you to Two Evil Carrots for pointing out that the last part was kind of weird.**

 **Edited: 4/28/17**

* * *

Puberty.

Angsty, dreaded puberty.

Just kidding.

Well, Hamura turned angsty. I stayed sane.

He grew even more hot-tempered than before.

I swear, I poked him lightly and he exploded.

Both figuratively and literally.

Okay, fine. I might have exaggerated.

But seriously, I nearly died that day.

I was more prepared than he was for the imbalance of hormones.

My previous life, huh…

Who knew it would come in handy?

* * *

Hamura stopped calling me "nii-san".

He also acted like he didn't have a weirdo twin that talked incessantly about non-existant things.

Like ice cream and cheese.

 _Sniff. They grow up so fast._

Other than that, I started meditating and trying to figure out what chakra was.

All the living beings had some chakra, but chakra wasn't just in living beings.

Hamura and our mother (Kaguya, for future references) had complex systems to circulate the energy.

All the rest had theirs centered around their abdomen.

It was pure energy, yet tangible enough to touch.

There also seemed to be different types.

"Living chakra" ranged a variety of purplish-blues, "Nature chakra" was a uniform moss green.

And the chakra amassing at the place…

I shuddered.

It writhed and screamed, trying to escape something. It was angry orange and burned the area around it.

Demonic chakra was the most appropriate name for _it_.

* * *

"Oi, Hagoromo."

I sighed.

"What is it, Hamura?"

"What are you doing?"

"Wow. Surprisingly civil for that tongue of yours."

Hamura bristled. "Contrary to your belief, I do have manners."

"Says the one who is an absolute narcissistic brathead all the time-"

"Hey! My head is perfectly fine."

"See? Narcissistic brathead."

He deadpanned at me.

"Anyways, what are you doing?"

I felt like messing with his mind.

"I'm doing something."

And so I did.

"What is the something?"

"The something is some thing."

"No! What are you doing?"

"I said it already. I'm doing something."

"What is the something?"

"The something is-"

"NO! What are you-ARGH!" He screeched, stalking away.

Calling my smile the Cheshire Cat's would be an understatement.

* * *

"What are you reading?"

"I'm reading a book."

"What's the name of the book?"

"The name of the book is the name of the book."

"Fine, be that way. What characters make up the book's title?"

"The characters in the title are characters."

"Oh oka-hey wait, that didn't answer my question!"

* * *

"Hagoromo, why are you like this?"

"Because."

"Because what?"

"Because because."

"Because becau-you know what? I give up."

"So you admit you're a narcissistic brathead?"

"Sure-wait a minute…"

"HA!"

* * *

"Hey, Hamura."

"Whaaaaaaaat? Go away."

I put my hand over my heart in mock hurt. "Here I thought I could share some mochi with you, but you clearly don't want it."

"Wai-wha-nooo I want mochi!"

* * *

Hamura looked angry.

He stalked towards me, aura reminiscent of the Katsu incident.

I revised my previous statement. He looked downright _pissed_.

"Why?"

"Huh?" I ask, confused. That seemed to further anger him.

"Here you are, fooling around, while I have to study! All I hear is 'Hagoromo this' and 'Hagoromo that'! We are the same age, yet you're treated like, like, way above me! Even kaa-san likes you more!"

"I don't-"

"And your weird 'things'," He did air-quotes, "you keep on embarrassing me, talking about nonsensical things and never thinking how that would affect me!"

"I-I don't understand what this is about-"

"See? This is why I-" He paused, then continued, "I hate you."

That cut deeper than I expected.

"I see." My voice became flat. He looked startled and took a step back.

I brushed past him.

"I'm sorry I couldn't be a better brother."

The surroundings blurred into green.

* * *

I just kept running.

I blame hormones.

Myself included.

I guess I was too busy wallowing in my previous life than to see what was in front of me.

Deeming myself far enough from the compound, I slowed down.

 _I need to calm myself._

Sitting down, I began to meditate.

Living chakra could be split into two. One side was pure red, and another a pure blue.

So if I take in some nature chakra and nab some demonic chakra so I had equal amounts of all types...

Something was dripping from my face.

I coughed.

Hey look, blood.

Everything warped and faded into black.

* * *

Hamura regretted his words the moment it rolled off his tongue.

By the time he tried to apologize, Hagoromo was already gone.

At first, he felt happy that he had finally beat his brother.

As the hours came and went, Hamura started to worry.

He ran into the forest, using his baku-whatever to track him.

His blood ran cold.

Hamura ran faster before arriving at his twin's unconscious body.

Dark red splotches stained the white clothes that Hagoromo wore. Blood flowed from the corner of his mouth and from his closed eyes.

"Hagoromo, I don't have time for this."

No response.

"Hagoromo! Get up!"

"Hagoromo, please! GET UP!"

"NII-SAN!"

Still no response.

Hamura hefted Hagoromo's body and sprinted back to the compound.

He never acknowledged the liquid that ran down his face.

* * *

When I opened my eyes, I saw a vast expanse of white.

 _I fucked up, didn't I?_

" **You did."**

I turned around. A mirror image of my previous life stared back.

Heh. At least I was taller than my previous self.

 _I never thought I'd see that face again._

"Are you the Shinigami?"

" **No."**

"Are you my inner self?"

" **No."**

"Am I dead?"

" **No."**

"Are you-"

" **Will you shut up?"**

"No."

 **"..."**

"Are you the convenient entity that the protagonist has to reflect on the wrongdoings that were committed?"

" **... No."**

"Are you my deepest, darkest thoughts and secrets?"

" **Kind of."**

"Oh. That's boring."

The projection pinched the bridge of its nose. " **Anyways, I'll cut straight to the point. You're an idiot."**

"I know. I should've-"

" **No! Did you not recognize the Sharingan? What kind of Naruto fan are you?"**

Whaaaa-oh.

 _Oh._

 _OH._

"So all those coincidences-"

" **-were you being an idiot."**

Ah. That's why everything seemed familiar.

Crap.

I was in the position that could potentially ensure that shinobi never existed.

That was preferable, seeing how they caused too much death and destruction.

But there was the problem of Momoshiki…

"So, now what?"

" **Best solution? Tell Kaguya."**

"Would she listen? Wouldn't she just try to kill me?"

" **Better tell her than let fate run its course."**

I sighed. The sigh turned into a groan.

 _Why me?_

" **Why you indeed."**

* * *

I woke up.

Everything was too bright.

My eyes throbbed.

"You awakened the Rinnegan." It wasn't a question.

Kaguya sat in the chair nearest to me.

I sat up. She walked closer to me.

 _I'm trapped._

"In order to protect this nursery, I require all chakra."

 _I can't move._

Her hand rushed towards me.

 _No space to dodge._

"This is necessary." she said, almost as if to reassure herself.

 _Is this karma?_

I closed my eyes and accepted my fate.

 _I guess... I kind of deserved it._

* * *

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	4. Pandemonium Allegro (1)

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* * *

I waited.

And waited.

The strike never came.

I opened my eyes.

 _Still too damn bright._

Her hand stopped right before my heart.

Tears flowed from her face and onto the floor. Her face was twisted with a myriad of emotions, most notably the sorrow and regret.

Using the moment of her hesitation, I started talking.

"I know of the others."

* * *

"I must request something."

"What is it?"

"Removal of the Divine tree. The chakra that broods there has become poisonous to the land."

"It is only for the arrival of the others."

"Then I propose," I started,"we -as in Hamura and I- will protect your 'nursery' in exchange that you leave this world alone."

"How would you do this? Both of you have yet to defeat me, let alone them."

"Train us. We posses the ability to utilize chakra, much like yourself."

Kaguya looked skeptical. "The others will do anything for power."

"Power cannot exist without a foundation, nor can be cultivated without support."

"Very well." She stood up and stepped back. "Do not disappoint me, Hagoromo."

* * *

The moment she left, Hamura barrelled in through the door and straight into me.

My poor ribs.

"N-NII-SAN…" he sobbed into my clothes, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I'msorryI'msorryI'msor-"

"Hamura, it's fine." I patted his back. That only made him cry harder.

"I-I was so angry at everything an-and I took it out on you," he blubbered, gripping my shirt. "An-and when you wer-were bleeding and unconscious, I-" He took a moment to wipe his mucus with his sleeve," realized how much you meant to me as a brother."

 _Wow. Just wow._

Was Hamura admitting that I was his brother?

The world must be ending.

Or this is some highly realistic dream.

Or an imposter.

I kid.

But seeing him let down his prickly shields was definitely a good change.

Now, only one problem left.

"Hamura?"

"Nii-san?"

"Get off. You're too heavy."

And everything was right in the world.

Except my ribs.

I'm pretty sure that they were fractured.

* * *

I took a week to recover.

Confined to the house, I was utterly bored.

Hamura chatted my ears off about how Konoha had started carving a nine-tailed fox, how Kiri started planting in the fields, and how he liked Yami.

He didn't tell me that, but it was pretty obvious.

When I finally was back on my feet, the training started.

It was hell.

Kaguya first taught us how to heal ourselves and others, some defensive maneuvers, illusions to hide ourselves and how to travel dimensions.

Actually, she only taught me how to dimension-hop. Something about having the right kind of chakra and eyes among other reasons.

She let us run wild with elemental chakra.

Suffice to say, one part of the forest was turned into a barren wasteland.

Until I decided that combining Earth and Water was a good idea.

To my defense, I was expecting mud, not genetically cloned trees.

Did they even have DNA?

Eh. I'll study that later.

* * *

Seals were weird.

Kaguya never needed seals, so she couldn't teach me.

In the end, it boiled down to trial and error.

I made sure to keep another copy of the seal in a small leather-bound book.

Some, once I added chakra, shriveled up.

Others exploded in a flurry of ink.

The successes, well…

They were pure _art_.

Especially the explosion seals.

* * *

Whoever thought of the "sink-or-swim" method of teaching needed to be kicked between the legs.

Repeatedly.

Kaguya took that method to new dimensions.

Ah, puns. Both the bane and the meaning of my existence.

That morning, she summoned us to an open field outside the village.

Kaguya gave us two pendants.

"In need, you can summon the other."

Then she tossed us through the black gap between dimensions.

* * *

We landed unceremoniously on the ground.

I was the first to recover and sat up.

It was night. A blood-red moon shone over a crater saturated in chakra.

"Nii-san, where is everyone?" Hamura sat up.

"I don't know." Just then, a flicker of…

My chakra?

Huh?

"Follow me." I ran towards the middle of the crater.

As I drew closer, I could see an older version of me emerging from pure chakra.

Oh.

We skidded to a halt behind four people. All of them turned around to see us.

"Uh...Hi?"

The silence was deafening.

"Yeah, uh, we'll just be going then-"

The one in red blue armor grabbed me by the shoulder. "How did you escape the Infinite Tsukuyomi?"

"Uh…LookwegottagocauseKaguya(mother by the way)tossedusintoanotherdimensionsoyeah-"

Creating the portal, I dragged Hamura through it.

"Bye!"

* * *

"DODGE HAMURA!"

"I'M TRYING!"

We ended up in a dimension where people shoot light beams from sticks.

Running into a room filled with people, I finally managed to create a portal.

Without thinking, we both dived, dodging the red light by a hair's breadth.

* * *

"It's. Too. Hot."

"Deal with it."

"..."

"..."

"Let's go to a new dimension."

"Agreed."

* * *

"What the hell is that?"

"A yellow land octopus."

"Can an octopus survive on land?"

"Maybe."

* * *

"Begone demon from thy body!"

"What the-agh! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?"

"So you aren't possessed…"

A beat of silence passed.

"Why do have a tail?"

* * *

"HA! TAKE THAT, FROG! MY SUMMONING WAS A SUCCESS!"

"STOP CALLING US DEMONS!"

* * *

"Woah! You can turn into a weapon?"

"Yeah. Wanna see?"

"Sure!"

* * *

Numerous screams echoed the dark landscape while fiery explosions dotted my field of vision.

"I'm just not going to even ask."

* * *

"So there's this midget with gold eyes and blond hair-"

"DAMN IT! I'M NOT SHORT!

* * *

"Who are you?"

"I'm Hamura. What about you?"

"I'm Madara!"

* * *

"Hey, you look like a younger version of father."

"Maybe I am."

* * *

I finally got the hang of landing on my feet.

Hamura still fell on his butt.

The air was humid and warm but not sticky. Oil flowed down a waterfall, and the whole place was filled to the brim with nature chakra.

Definitely back in our dimension.

"I have been expecting you two." We turned around. A small orange toad sat on a leaf.

"Huh? How is the toad talking?" Hamura piped up, looking around in awe.

"Apparently."

"I am Gamamaru. I will teach you two how to harness nature chakra."

* * *

"Nii-san?"

"Hm?"

"What's that red dot your forehead?"

"I don't know."

* * *

We appeared on top of a river.

There was no chakra, no anything out of the mundane in my first life.

 _Could I be-?_

A roar resounded the whole area and a dragon rose out of the forest.

 _Nope._

* * *

We landed in a conference room. _  
_

Everyone stared at us.

Pandemonium erupted.

"Impossible! Shouldn't be able to teleport-"

"But if we take in that factor into account-"

Both of us stared.

"Let's go."

"Yeah."

* * *

I faced down a giant sand racoon dog.

"Sit!"

It obliged.

* * *

"WHY ARE THEY CHASING US?"

"Don't talk; Just run."

A horde of fangirls chased after us.

* * *

I landed on something squishy and looked down.

A mop of blond hair and a weird jacket poofed away.

Three kids, all of which were shorter than me, stared.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry about that."

* * *

Hamura landed on someone with silver hair.

I snickered.

Three kids, different from last time, also stared.

The one down poofed away.

"You two again."

* * *

 **Please Review!**

 **Game: Guess all the dimensions they visited.**

 **Prize: Shout-out and a cameo of your own OC.**

 **Rules: I will be choosing the first person who gets them all completely right.**

 **Time limit is until I post the next chapter.**

 **To people who commented on the previous chapter: He's alive. Nothing bad has happened to him.**


	5. Pandemonium Allegro (2)

**Hello!**

 **Ahahaha... Sorry for the wait. Writer's block caught up to me.**

 **Yeah.**

 **Finals are coming up, so I'll be taking the next two weeks to study and take the finals, which means I won't be working on this.  
**

 **Thank you all for the favorites, follows and review!**

 **BETA: Still waiting for more people to PM me...**

 **As for the game, I think I'll extend it to the next time I post again.**

 **Should I create a forum for this fanfic?**

* * *

Kaguya had already left by the time we made it back.

Drained of chakra and partially dead, we trudged back to our house.

She sat with two trays of food waiting for us.

Mumbling a thank-you and a thanks-for-the-food, we sat down and ate our food in silence.

I choked as a single rice grain that went down the wrong tube.

Hacking, I keeled over…

And died.

Not.

In reality, I passed out from exhaustion.

* * *

Life went on as usual.

I sat in a clearing, trying to channel the red type into left and the blue to the right.

Both of them burst into chakra flames, each the respective color of the chakra type.

I stared.

 _Nothing surprises me anymore._

Moving both flames together. They knitted together seamlessly, becoming a violet flame that flickered in an imaginary wind.

 _I want a cat again..._

As if hearing my thoughts, the flames shifted, forming a solid figure.

A small tabby kitten emerged from the flames.

 _Eh?_

* * *

Of all the things I was expecting, it certainly wasn't this.

A demon? Sure.

A phoenix? Likely.

A homunculus? Alright.

The anthropomorphic personification of the Russian Federation? Highly unlikely, but still probable.

The kitten yawned.

I took a step back, expecting it to explode.

Which it did.

I kid. It melted back into chakra.

 _Uh..._

* * *

I turned nineteen.

Over the years, my past life slowly faded to gray,

Some portions were gone entirely.

Many of the details of Naruto became fuzzy, before they too joined the background.

Now, all I had left was the gist of the original story-line.

Seeing how I'm here, it was probably useless.

 _Way to go brain; remember all the stuff that I don't need._

* * *

Seeing with the Rinnegan was easier once I became accustomed to the explosion of information.

Everything was bright and the amount of detail was excruciating, since everything was pretty much filled with chakra.

Hell, I could be on one side of the room and count the wood grains on the other side.

 _What if I combine the Sharingan and the Rinnegan…?_

Hamura later found me on the ground rolling in pain.

* * *

"Hamura?"

"Nii-san?"

'Why's everyone acting weirder than usual?"

"I don't know."

My statement wasn't without evidence.

People flitted around, as if preparing for something huge.

It was both amusing and disconcerting.

Until Kaguya appeared behind us and dragged us both by the ear back to our house.

"Ow-what is the occasion?" I rubbed my ear.

Kaguya just glared at both of us.

"It is a wedding between two of the villagers."

"Who are the ones to be married?"

"Suzuki Konoha and Ishikawa Iwa."

"Konoha's a girl‽"

* * *

"As the future leaders of this village, you two will also attend the wedding. This means, you'll need to prepare wedding gifts."

Ah.

One thing that I never did in my past life was attend a wedding.

Seriously.

If my friends (in my past life) had the balls to get married, I wouldn't had to deal with this predicament.

Oh right.

I had no friends.

* * *

I wandered around the village, trying to get ideas for the wedding gift.

 _Should I go for something flashy or useful?_

I _could_ theoretically build a house…

 _Nah, let's go with something useful._

Sure, houses were useful, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for.

 _Maybe di-oooooohhhh._

I knew exactly what I wanted to give them.

* * *

 **Bonus: Shameless Flirting**

Hamura had reached that age. (Sixteen, give or take a year)

The stage where boys become hopelessly infatuated with girls.

More specifically, Yami.

Not that she returned the favor.

I secretly think that she's a tsundere, but so far it's only the "tsun" part that fits her.

Yami verbally (and sometimes physically, if Hamura got too close) ripped him to shreds.

One time, when Hamura asked her hand in marriage for the 354th time, she exploded.

"BY KAMI, IF YOU ASK ME ONE MORE TIME, I SWEAR I WILL CASTRATE YOU WHERE YOU STAND!"

The whole village heard her voice and collectively winced. Myself included.

That night, Hamura asked, "Nii-san, what does 'castrate' mean?"

I blinked. "It's uh-" I made a gesture to the lower section of my body, "y'know… those parts?"

He nodded.

I mimed slicing.

Huh. Didn't know it was possible for that shade of white to exist on a face.

* * *

 **Omake: Tanked**

I tried summoning.

It… worked.

Kind of.

"Is that a TANK?"

The tank was pretty impressive. Towering over me, it gleamed in the sun as the scent of oil and gunpowder radiated out. There were a few dents here and there, but overall it was relatively new.

It's like seeing a whale on a TV then meeting face-to-face with one.

Yeah.

 _Wonder what happens if I summon a whole battalion?_

* * *

 _Somewhere Else, Some Other Dimension_

"Sir! One of our tanks disappeared!"

"WHAT? Which one?"

"The Tiger II, sir."

"Do you know where it went?"

"No, sir. It disappeared into smoke."

Another soldier barged in. "Bad news, commander! Our entire battalion of tanks just disappeared into smoke!"

The commander swore and another soldier ran in. "Sir! We've been surrounded by the enemy!"

" _SHIT_."

* * *

"So, what do I do with all of these tanks?"

* * *

 **Don't take the last one seriously, it was just something that popped into my head.  
**

 **Sorry about the short length.**

 **Hope someone caught that reference to Hetalia...**

 **Random Question: Favorite character so far?**

 **Please review!**


	6. The Gardener's Lament

**Hi, mikutalianinja here!**

 **Wow! Thank you all for the faves, follows and reviews!**

 **A quick clarification of the difference between an omake and bonus:**

 **An omake is whatever plot-bunnies I happen to write for my own amusement, and are not canon with the story.**

 **A bonus is something that can be part of the story, but not necessarily needed.**

 **Both of these are just for some humor.**

 **BETA: Still waiting. PM me if interested.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

A knife melted into chakra before it could embed itself into a tree.

I growled in frustration.

 _How the hell am I supposed to use the Two-Flame Thingy?_

On the first try, I accidentally created a sentient knife.

("What are you, a toddler? I will not tolerate that attitude!"

"You're a knife! I _created_ you!"

"Such impertinence!")

It took 529 times to create a non-sentient knife, 275 more for a non-melting one, and 193 _more_ to get it sharp enough to use.

And lots of wasted chakra.

Gah.

* * *

Kaguya sat down in the middle of the room, waiting for the disease to show.

She stretched her chakra down to the nature one below, which spread across the land she protected.

 _There._

Opening a portal, she stepped onto a battlefield.

"SHE'S HERE! THE DEMON IS HERE!"

"RUN!"

It was a shame, but the diseased branches must be cut.

Even some that were unlucky enough to be too close.

"NO! I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING I SW-"

They were already tainted.

"Please, PLEASE! Spare my child! I'll do anything! Just let my child go!"

Tainted by the plague of War.

A sword impaled her abdomen.

* * *

"Aw, crapola! Not another one!"

" _Excusez moi?_ I simply cannot stand the sight of you!"

"What the hell is your problem? And why are you _French_?"

"As if you could comprehend why, you child."

"You're just like that British one! I _created_ you!"

"Do not compare me to those British pigs!"

* * *

Kaguya stared at the sword sticking out of her body.

"HA! Take that, dem-"

The sword crumbled into dust and the wielder's blood joined the red rivulets.

The wound didn't matter, it was already healing. The child, on the other hand...

It was unfortunate that the child did not escape when she was distracted.

The child stood, paralyzed, as she walked closer to him.

"Perhaps, perhaps…"

He was still young enough to be cured.

"Do you wish to live?"

* * *

Life was okay.

Sort of.

The wedding was the next day and everyone was running around like headless chickens.

I was curious on where Hamura usually trained, so I wandered around the forest for a bit.

Only to later find him arguing with the first knife I created.

* * *

"Go… to hell…"

Kaguya closed her hand around the child's neck. The child squirmed.

"Be as it may, you will not die."

The child started melting

"If you had answered yes, I might've spared you."

His skin turned black.

"To show to my children that some branches could be cured."

His eyes turned yellow and dull.

"But now..."

His teeth sharpened.

"You will become my will."

The once-child took up roost in Kaguya's sleeve, purring happily that it was close to its creator.

"Your name is now Zetsu."

* * *

 **Omake: The Drunkening**

Getting drunk with god-like powers? Not fun for both the person and the area around them.

Getting drunk with _gods_? Well, there goes the world.

And the dimension.

It was Mythos-Earth's turn to host this inter-dimensional summit meeting ( _*coughbooze-festcough*)_ of gods, which held in Asgard.

Apparently, they had a _mile_ deep kettle for ale.

Yeah.

With that amount of alcohol, something was bound to go wrong.

* * *

It started out okay.

Since it was our first time there, we sat with the minor gods and played poker while the major gods discussed stuff.

Apparently, Kaguya was considered the "god" of our realm or something of that sort.

I didn't pay attention.

When the meeting convened, we were all ushered into a huge banquet room.

That's probably when all semblance of civility broke down.

To add, if I may, I did **not** quadruple the amount of ethanol in the drinks.

Because, I was **not** curious on how gods functioned with a near lethal amount of alcohol and did **not** get Loki to help me.

Seriously.

(Which, by the way, just made some of their powers go semi-wild.)

"Urk!"

"Wha-" I turned around to meet face-to-face with…

A girl?

"I'm sorry, miss, but what are you doing behind me? I don't know you-"

She made an are-you-an-idiot face and crossed her arms across her chest. "I'm HAMURA."

I blinked.

And blinked again.

"Uh…"

 _Processing…_

 _3…_

 _2…_

 _1..._

"HOLY CRAP!"

Right that moment, the everyone decided to quiet down at the same time, so my statement carried throughout the entire room.

Everyone looked at me.

 _Kill me now._

* * *

"Hey, kid."

"Mmpgh?" I was in the middle of eating when someone tapped my shoulder.

I turned around. Apollo, Ares and Thor stared intensely at me.

 _*meep*_

To say that they were intimidating was an understatement.

Probably the understatement of the millennia.

Each of them had about twice my entire bio-mass in muscles alone.

(I am slightly exaggerating, of course. Having super-buff, tall gods, with the capacity to pulverize me many times over, staring down at me is only _slightly_ intimidating.)

"We're holding a contest out there," Apollo gestured to the field outside, "we heard from your mother that you're pretty strong."

I glared at Kaguya. She calmly sipped some sake.

 _WHY?_

Hamura (still a girl, by the way) snickered at my situation.

"Come with us," Ares demanded.

"W-wait, surely you've got the wrong per-"

"I'm sure your strength will prove the validity of your exploits!"

"I'm still just a morta-"

"We won't kill you. It's just a series of spars."

"I tend to think of myself as a pacifistic intellectual, thank you very much-"

"You're coming with us." Ares hefted me over his shoulder like I was a sack of feathers.

"HAMURA! HELP ME!"

Hamura smirked. "Have fun~!" She (he?) sang then waved at me.

"YOU TRAITORRRRRRRRRRR-"

* * *

"Wait, we're using sharp, potentially lethal WEAPONS?"

"Yeah, it's a spar."

" _What part of 'I'm a mortal' do you not understand?_ "

"I'm sure Hel is willing to resurrect you."

" _I don't think you understand._ "

I was surrounded by fully fledged gods, mostly males. They were all boasting about their accomplishments and/or what they were capable of.

I, on the other hand, was screaming bloody murder. On the inside.

The testosterone fueled sausage-fest was punctuated by the arrival of Artemis, Hel, Macha, Sekhmet and Aphrodite.

"Alright! Time for the first match! That kid versus Wepwawet!"

Wepwawet was a tall, wolf-headed Egyptian deity that towered over me.

"Hell no." I dived into the ground.

* * *

I actually did win that round, due to accidentally punching him in the groin.

That only made them want to fight me more.

The next day, I woke up feeling like putty.

Hamura woke up as part of the male population.

* * *

 **Please Review!**

 **Wepwawet is an actual Egyptian god. Go google/baidu/bing/(whatever search engine you use) it up.**

 **I was going to write Tanked (part 2) but this omake (The Drunkening) ended up a lot longer than I was expecting...**

 **Xion Kirana, Amatsumi, EMOTIONALMESS, calcu22 and Not-Gonna-Update: Thank you!**

 **RadioPoisoning: Does he spread that much chaos?**

 **Two Evil Carrots: Huh... why not?**

 **Random Challenge: Come up with the most stereotypical British and/or French name.**


	7. Young One

**Hey! mikutalianinja here!**

 **I'm sorry for making y'all wait for a long time...**

 **Mainly because of traveling and an annoying writer's block.**

 **I already have the outline of the next chapter done, so the next shouldn't take too long to edit and upload.**

 **LOOKING FOR BETA! PM me for more details.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

I added my gift (a diamond embedded grindstone with a few steel chisels) to the steadily growing pile and sat down on the right of Kaguya. Hamura, on Kaguya's left, looked utterly bored.

The villagers gave us a wide berth, choosing to sit somewhere far away from us.

Eh.

There was some weird purring coming from her. Specifically her sleeve.

I thought she had kidnapped a cat.

Until a humanoid head poked out and looked at me.

Externally, I was unfazed.

Internally, I was panicking.

 _Why is Zetsu here? Doesn't he/she/it appear after Hagoromo and Hamura seal-_

 _Oh. Right._

 _It's because I'm Hagoromo._

 _And I should probably be dead._

* * *

The wedding ceremony went without a hitch.

Really.

Some things do go normally around here.

* * *

"Mother, may I ask why you are handing us a child?"

"Training."

I had considered sending Zetsu into a different dimension.

This was the one entity that pretty much set up everyone to die, and was the main antagonist of the entire Naruto series.

On the other hand, this Zetsu was a innocent child (so far), not yet experienced the world and had no reason to set anyone up to die.

 _I suppose the redeeming trope would come in handy right now._

* * *

Quest: Give Zetsu a conscience/thought process so he/she/it doesn't kill a lot of people.

Status: Ongoing...

"What do you like, Zetsu?"

" **Whatever Mother would desire.** "

"Do you have any wishes?"

" **My wish is whatever Mother wishes.** "

"Have you thought of what you would like to do?"

" **No; I am merely an extension of Mother's will.** "

* * *

Status: Ongoing...

"Are you hungry?"

" **I do not require sustenance to survive.** "

"Then how do you survive?" Hamura asked.

" **I am the manifestation of Mother's will. That alone is enough.** "

Both of us blinked.

"Okay then."

* * *

Status: Ongoing...

"Hey, Zetsu. Do you want to try thinking for yourself?"

" **For what reason?** "

"For when Mother makes a mistake."

" **Unlikely. Mother is a god. She is above mistakes.** "

"Gods can make mistakes, however unlikely they are."

" **What does this have to do with my own thoughts?** "

"If Mother made a mistake, then you can correct her."

Zetsu was silent.

"I'm not saying that you don't follow her. You can, but, y'know… try?"

 _That was a shitty argument._

Zetsu was still a kid at heart, so it actually worked.

" **Alright.** " he conceded.

Status: Quest Complete!

* * *

Kaguya watched from afar with disguised amusement as Hagoromo showed Zetsu chakra.

Her thoughts turned towards the sky.

Time had not been kind to her.

She could feel herself age, albeit slowly. It was inefficient to wait for them.

Kaguya planned to be sealed by her sons and released when the others came.

That was the reason she kept them alive.

(She didn't acknowledge the emotional part of her that insisted on familial attachment.)

But as insurance, she created Zetsu.

Zetsu could survive as long as possible.

He would become the key to the seal.

* * *

A year or so passed.

It's kind of hard to tell years when all you've got is the sky.

Zetsu blended seamlessly into our daily lives, acting as a little brother.

Everything was normal.

Until one day, when the three of us (Zetsu, Hamura and I) walked back into the village at sunset.

It was quiet. Deathly so.

"Where is everyone?"

"Give me a moment." The veins on his temple bulged. He let out a soft gasp and sprinted to one of the houses.

Zetsu and I followed. By the time we reached him, he was cradling a mummy, tears flowing down his face.

"What…" A single root-like branch wound its way through the house with human-shaped mummies.

" **What is this?** " Zetsu poked at the wrappings.

"They're dead."

Zetsu and I stilled.

"The whole village is dead."

* * *

 **Omake: Tanked (2)**

Making sure the barrel was pointed towards the forest, I loaded the tank.

I think. This thing didn't come with instruction manuals.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

 **BOOM.**

"My ears…"

There was now a smoking, sizeable crater in the field.

"H-Hagoromo-sama?" A barely discernible voice made me pop out of the hatch. Yami, with trembling Shio behind her, strolled up to the side of the tank.

"A-are you alright?"

"I'm fine, thank you for your concern." Shio blushed. Yami looked bored.

"What's that?" Yami looked at the tank and touched it.

"Something. I don't really know." _Lie._

"Can I see the interior?" That smile _slightly_ unnerved me.

"Sure. Here, let me help you." I reached out my hand. She grabbed on and pulled herself up.

I pulled her in a little too harshly and she ended on top of me, faces squished together.

Uh.

 _Was it just me, or did it get uncomfortably hot in here?_

She pushed away, face completely red.

" _ **Never speak of this.**_ "

I gulped. "Y-yes ma'am."

* * *

"HAMURA! RUN!"

"Wait wha-WHAT IS **THAT**?"

 **BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.**

"TAKE THAT!"

"GOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO- JUST GO!"

* * *

In the end, I bent the barrel to get Yami to stop.

The tank poofed out of existence, dropping Yami on the ground.

I spared a glance at the other tanks.

 _It's for the prevention of a rampaging mad-woman, so…_

* * *

The following explosion caused a small earthquake.

And burnt hair.

* * *

"Sir! Enemy tanks ahead!"

"What condition are they in?"

"One is still drive-able, but the others…" The soldier hesitated.

"Spit it out!"

"They're only piles of ash and metal, sir."

"What? Show me!"

* * *

The general stared at the tank with its barrel bent back 180 degrees.

"What were those people thinking?"

* * *

 **Yeah, I know I didn't paint Yami as a likeable character, but I haven't expanded on her character yet.**

 **Be on the lookout for more Yami (and maybe Shio) related bonuses. ;)**

 **Please review!**

 **Two Evil Carrots: Your wish has been answered.**


	8. Here Lies the World

**Hey! mikutalianinja here!**

 **Random message: So there's this person on YouTube who does trope talks, and one of the videos is about Mary-Sues/Gary-Stus. I think it really clarifies what a Mary-Sue/Gary-Stu is, so check it out! Link in profile.**

 **(Or if you're too lazy, search "Overly Sarcastic Productions Mary Sue" on YouTube.)**

 **Thank you for all the reviews, favs and follows! They encourage me to write more.  
**

 **Beta still needed. PM me for more details.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

"The entire village…?"

"Yes." _The dead look in Hamura's eyes..._

 _Yami._

"I'm sorry for the loss." I murmured, letting him lean on me.

Hamura shook with silent sobs.

Zetsu patted his other shoulder.

The three of us stood there, unaware of a horned shadow that appeared at the doorway and disappeared as quickly as it came.

* * *

The source of demonic chakra _moved_.

"No…" I ran outside, "It can't be…"

The god tree rose from the horizon, but not as a tree.

Ten tails flailed behind a humanoid body with a single, bloody red eye.

The Juubi let out a primordial screech, before collecting chakra in a dense black ball.

It was headed towards us.

 _Shitshitshitshitshit- there's not enough time to warn them-_

Bright blue chakra erupted out of me, forming the skeleton of around the village.

 _PleaseletSusanoostanditpleaseletSusanoostandit_ _ **please**_ _-_

I formed a complete chest plate and helmet before the ball detonated into a beam, striking Susanoo chest-on.

Stumbling a bit, I held my ground.

The armor was chipped away but survived the attack.

The surrounding area, not as much.

It was something akin to the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. (Not that I've seen one up close, it just seemed like a legit comparison.)

(Or maybe one too many World War 2 documentaries.)

Everything in the outside the Susanoo was vaporized immediately. Lava-like stone flowed sluggishly around the village like a make-shift moat.

Panting, I released Susanoo and went down on one knee.

A shadow towered over me. I looked up.

It was Kaguya.

"It is time."

A red eye (much like the one on the Juubi) opened on her forehead.

 _What does her skull look like- you know what, I actually don't want to know._

We locked eyes and she activated her Byakugan.

The world shattered.

* * *

I was floating.

Maybe.

Everything was fuzzy.

Including the pain.

 _What?_

I blinked.

The world was white.

But not completely.

And the noise was annoying.

Kind of like the beeping of a heart monitor.

Wait.

Second-Homeverse didn't even have machines.

 _Could it be-?_

"-blinked! It's a miracle!"

"Avery! Avery! You're finally awake!"

I blinked again.

"Oh, Avery!" Cue wet blobs.

 _What's going on?_

Everything was blurry.

And really bright.

 _Have I ascended to Dante's Paradisio?_

The amount of beeping doubled.

 _Nope. Definitely in the Inferno._

* * *

" _Nii-san! Wake up!"_

" _It is no use. He is under my command."_

* * *

I woke up again.

Or something. I don't know anymore.

Now, onto more pressing matters…

 _Where's Hamura and Zetsu?_

That was easy enough; clearly they don't exist in a world filled with beeping machines.

 _Was that all a dream?_

Another easy one; I don't know.

(I'm not even sure if this is a dream.)

 _Why and/or how am I back in my original body?_

Truly, the million-dollar question.

I was so sure I died.

 _Screeching tires, a muffled thump and audible cracks filled the air-_

 _Stabbing pains where the shards of bone embedded itself into their host's flesh-_

 _Punctured lung(s), cracked skull, broken ribs, a snapped neck and back-_

 _Limbs twisted the wrong way, blood painting the scene scarlet-_

I blinked at the memory.

 _At least the strawberry made it out._

* * *

" _Join me, Zetsu. It is what you were created for."_

" _Zetsu! Don't go! I can't lose you too!"_

* * *

Over the days ( Minutes? Hours? _Years?_ ) I came and went, in and out of focus of the world.

I heard snippets of conversations, both in and out of my mind. The outer one sounded hopeful, tinged with sadness. The inner was much more turbulent, filled with desperation and anger.

 _That's Hamura and Zetsu-_

A mind-numbing wave of medicine cut me off from that thread of thought, making me lose consciousness.

* * *

" _ **I will not. I would rather stay with Hamura-nii and Hagoromo-nii.**_ "

" _Then suffer the consequences that your choice will bring."_

* * *

A month passed.

I was able to stay awake longer and longer and move/respond around more.

However, I couldn't feel my legs.

(Huh. That's weird.)

"Hello. Avery Fox, right?" A pristine-white lab coat doctor walked in, clipboard in hand.

"Yes." My voice was scratchy and hoarse from disuse.

Oh and a small Japanese accent.

"How are you feeling today?" The doctor didn't notice.

"Horrible. Dirty. All those and more." I muttered under my breath.

"Alright then." He scribbled down something. "Do you want to know what happened to you?"

"Sure, why not." _Can't be worse than finding out I was alive all this time._

 _And that Hamura and Zetsu were (probably) figments of my imagination._

"So," he began, seeming to pause to draw in a long breath, " You were found with several cracks to the skull, a severe concussion, lacerations to the chest, punctured lungs, a staggering amount of blood lost, compound fractures to the chest and back, and stable fractures to the pelvis and femurs."

"Ah."

"You were then placed in intensive care, as of which you fell into a coma for two months."

"Ah."

The doctor sighed.

 _Here comes the catch…_

"Unfortunately, the compound fractures to your back were the C3 and T8 vertebrae. I'm sorry, but you have partial paraplegia paralysis."

"Ah."

* * *

" _Nii-san! Please! Wake up!"_

" _ **Hagoromo-nii!**_ "

* * *

"Avery~ I came to visit~"

"Thanks, Brook."

"No problem. Now, tell me about the injuries you got!" She pulled out a pen and paper, cerulean eyes sparkling.

I rolled my eyes. " _Of_ course that's your first thought. No 'get better soon'?"

"You know I don't do that shit. I'm the leading medical intern of this hospital!"

"Yes, and I'm the genius of the century."

"That's not much a joke, since you _are_. Now, tell me."

I sighed and began rattling off the list. "Let's see, a ton of broken bones, punctured lungs, concussion, lacerations, broken C3 and T8 with partial paraplegia paralysis."

Her pen stopped. "That doesn't make sense." She muttered to herself.

"What?"

"Breaking the C3," she pointed at the diagram ( _where did she get one?_ ), "that would've resulted in partial _tetraplegia_ paralysis. Not paraplegia. Unless-" Brook looked at me. "How broken was C3?"

"Open compound. Same with T8."

"That's it. It just doesn't make sense."

"Maybe I was lucky."

"Luck plays no part in this." Brook hissed at me. I tilted my head back, surprised at the change of tone.

"This-"

Everything froze.

* * *

" _The only way to free him is through death."_

* * *

 **I had to search up a _lot_ of stuff for this chapter.  
**

 **Seriously.**

 **Random question: What is your favorite food?  
**

 **Please review!**

 **CHARA ATE MY SOUL: Wow, really? I made Zetsu adorable? (I mean, like, no hate of Zetsu, but I've read a lot of fanfics where Zetsu is only creepy/evil.)**

 **Two Evil Carrots: Patience. It will come. Eventually.**

 **D (Guest): Thanks!**


	9. The Gilded Cage

**Hey! mikutalianinja here!**

 **Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows!**

 **Beta still needed.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other references to other works.**

* * *

 _" **The only way-is through killing him?** "_

* * *

"What?" I stared at the frozen Brook curiously.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw me and a cat (What?) fighting a horned shadow.

They disappeared and the world resumed.

"-can't be real…" Brook trailed off, looking at me. Then a slow grin spread across her face.

To the point where it was unnaturally wide.(And a bit bloodthirsty.)

"Die. Now."

I blinked before the words sank in.

"I can't just die on command!" I protested, doing my best to stay as far away as I could from Brook.

"Fine. I'll put you in surgery." She proceeded to pull on some gloves.

"I'm not going to let you dissect me."

"But _Averyyyyyyyy-_ "

"No."

"Pleeeeeeeease?"

"No."

"Plea-"

" **No.** "

* * *

Brook sat down on the bed, pouting at the inconvenience of my body being (mostly) functional and conscious.

"...You're a psychopath, you know that?"

Just then, the door slammed open and a figure wearing a weird hat whirled into the room.

"I'm not a psychopath, I'm a high functioning sociopath!"

Both of us stared at the figure.

"How long has he been there?"

"Long enough for season 5 to come out."

"Wait, really?"

"No. Just enough for him to watch all the episodes."

"Oh."

Sherlock proceeded to hug me.

(His parents were huge Sherlock Holmes fans.)

It was less of a hug and more of a whole body strangulation.

"C-can't breathe- Brook, help!"

"Sherlock, can I have the body afterwards?"

"Okay."

" _Traitorrrrr..._ "

I think I passed out.

* * *

I rubbed my sore neck.

"He really was affected by all this, y'know." Brook turned her head to the small lump in the corner.

Said lump was surrounded by an aura of depression.

"Yeah, sorry Sherlock."

"Don't do it again." Sherlock muttered.

"Don't plan to." I turned to Brook. "Who else came?"

"Let's see… Winston, Charles and Kole came by yesterday, but you were asleep. London's coming, and Ciana left you one of her books." She gestured at the innocent little book on the small table.

I paled. "No. Nononono, I'm not reading her works _ever again_."

"Why?" Brook flipped to one of the pages. "Oooh! _65 Ways to Dismember a Body with a Popsicle Stick_. Sounds interesting."

" _No wonder you two are such good friends._ "

A knock on the door diverted our attention away from the book.

"Hello?" A quiet voice made itself known beyond the door.

"London?"

"AND PARIS!"

"...And his hyperactive little dog."

"Hey!"

* * *

After that was said and done, Brook left to go run some other tests.

London and his little sister, Paris, left as well.

All that was left was Sherlock, who wouldn't stop talking about what I had missed.

"So- there was this really cool new movie and apparently there might be a season 5 but how are you supposed to pay for all this?"

I took a moment to digest his words.

"Is it too late to move to Canada?"

* * *

 _"Yes."_

* * *

I was somewhat hungry.

Not hungry enough to call a nurse and deprive them of their other, more important duties, but hungry enough to want the orange that was _juuust_ out of reach.

After fruitlessly struggling to obtain the orange, I leaned my entire torso out and stretched…

 _WHUMP._

I fell out of the bed and onto the floor.

 _At least I got the orange._

* * *

"How am I supposed to get back to the bed?"

 _Should I try or..._

Half an hour later, I was back in the bed again.

* * *

"Aveeeryyy~"

"What is it this time?"

Brook wheeled in a wheelchair.

"Physical therapy."

"Oh."

* * *

" _Kill me now…_ "

"Finally! I'd thought you would've given up sooner."

"DAMNIT BROOK, IT WAS A HYPERBOLE!"

* * *

I woke up in the middle of the night.

Except it didn't look like it.

The room was painted with an eerie red light.

Shifting as close as I can to the window, I peered outside.

The outside world was busy, flashing lights and dark figures wandered the streets.

The moon hung low in the sky, blood red with concentric circles in black.

* * *

 _"I will give you a week to decide your answer. Come, Hagoromo, let us depart."_

* * *

 **Bonus: Two Slightly Squishable Humans and One Extremely Squishable Human (Or Dimensional Traveling With Zetsu)**

We landed haphazardly in a pile.

CRACK.

Whatever was below the dog-pile turned into ash.

"Nii-san, you're getting old."

"That wasn't me. Now get off, Hamura, you're too heavy."

" **Where are we?** " Zetsu slid down and reformed on the ground.

Hamura got off, looked around and immediately groaned. "It's the stick-waving dimension!"

"Really? Damnit." I sat up and dusted off all the ash.

" _You killed Voldemort…_ "

" **What?** "

Some person waved their stick in our direction.

"Who are you?"

" **Wha-I can understand them!** "

"Hello stick-wavers! We come in peace."

"Muggles then."

"Muggles killed the Dark Lord? The Prophet will have a field-day with this." Another muttered.

* * *

We landed in an apartment.

I landed on my feet and Hamura landed on a wooden chair.

Zetsu ricocheted off the wall and hit someone in the face.

The person was knocked unconscious and fell on to the floor with a heavy thump.

The three other people in the room stared. One (the old lady) flinched.

"So, uh, bad timing?"

* * *

 **Sorry if I've offended anyone with the (semi) political joke or other things.  
**

 **Please review!**


	10. Gaps Between Minds

**Hey! mikutalianinja here!**

 **Ugh. I'm sorry for the long time to update.**

 **I've gotten a lot busier than before, so updates will be kind of slow.**

 **Thank you for all the reviews, favorites and follows!**

 **Still looking for a beta.**

* * *

 _"Hagoromo, you know this is for the best. For you three and the world."_

* * *

I stared at the moon.

 _I wasn't dreaming._

I looked around, making sure no one was around.

This was an illusion.

 _But was it really?_

A thick pervasive fog filled my mind, numbing all thoughts from that subject.

 _This **is** real._

A soft voice (it sounded like - - - - - - ( _Why can't I remember the name?_ )) echoed the room.

Or in my head.

 _Clearly, I must be going insane._

" **Clearly.** "

Other/Past/I-don't-even-know-anymore me appeared in front of me, worse for wear.

Black mist-like fluid (blood?) dripped from the cuts on the Other Me's body, dissipating before touching the ground.

"You're hurt."

" **No shit, Sherlock.** "

"Fuck off, Watson."

We sat in silence.

The window cracked and shattered. A small bundle of smoking something skidded across the floor before stopping.

" **Crap. She's coming?** "

The figure staggered to its feet and growled.

"Who?"

" **Kaguya. Who else?** "

"Oh, I dunno, some other-worldly entity who decided that 'Hey! You're going to be my secretary/slave' and decided to mess around with reincarnation so I went through some significant number of trials to deem me worthy or something."

More silence.

" **We're getting off track here. You, Third-Life, remember this. _This is not real._** "

"Okay-hey wait, what do you mean Third-Li-" The sound of ripping interrupted our conversation.

A horned shadow slipped into the room, with each step Other-me and the small figure grew fainter.

It stared at me.

I stared back.

It stretched out a limb to touch me and I blacked out.

* * *

 _"Six days left."_

* * *

Sitting here was boring.

I stared at the book Ciana left, contemplating whether or not to read it.

 _I may be bored, but I'm definitely not_ that _bored._

Nevertheless, I reached out to grab the book.

Needless to say, I didn't sleep that night.

* * *

 _"Five days left."_

* * *

"Avery, you look terrible!"

"I blame it on my boredom."

* * *

 _"Four days left."_

* * *

Another sleepless night.

The red moon stared down from the sky, as if it were mocking the world below.

 ** _This isn't real._**

Those words echoed in my head, but I didn't know where they came from.

I ignored those words.

* * *

 _"Three days left."_

* * *

Sherlock stared outside. "When are you going to be discharged?"

"Probably in a few weeks or so. They still need to run tests."

* * *

 _"Two days left."_

* * *

"Come on, Avery! Just a few more laps and you'll be done!"

"Are you kidding me?!"

* * *

 _"One day left."_

* * *

Another two weeks passed without an incident.

* * *

 _"A week has now passed. What is your answer?"_

* * *

I was talking to Sherlock when a small knock drew our attention to the door.

Before a hyperactive thing burst through the doorway in a shower of confetti.

"HEY THERE, AVERY!"

"Paris, stop doing that! I can't clean up after you every time!"

I stifled a laugh. "Well, that might just add a few more days, Sher-" Sherlock had his hands tightly over his ears. "Oh right…"

London, who finally cleaned up all the confetti, whacked Paris on her head. "Don't do that around Sherlock!" He hissed at her, "you know he doesn't like loud noises."

"Oh...yeah…" Paris slightly wilted and looked guilty. She walked towards Sherlock and tapped his shoulder. Sherlock looked up and moved his hands away.

"I'm sorry."

* * *

 _"I'm sorry, nii-san."_

* * *

The world blurred. I heard shouts in the distance, but they seemed too far away.

 _What's happening?_

Too late for the question, as the world fractured around me.

Bruises made themselves known in flares of pain. Sharp snaps of bones echoed around.

Sherlock reached out to me, his face distraught, but even he was riddled with cracks and disintegrated.

A burning sensation bloomed in my chest, spreading throughout my whole body.

Then…

Nothing.

* * *

Or maybe not.

Everything cleared, and I was greeted to an irate face.

" **Hagoromo-nii, you're _late_.** "

* * *

 **Omake: Tanked (3)**

Hamura was going to do it.

He was going to ask Yami what she thought of him.

Hamura hoped that his previous attempts at… asking her hand in marriage had been forgotten.

Adjusting his robes, he set out into the forest, where he knew Yami would be picking herbs.

* * *

Yami was bent over, inspecting each leaf before it was placed in the straw basket.

It was a daily routine of hers; a way for her to get away from the rest of the village.

Not that she didn't like the village, _per say_ … but it was nice to be alone for a change.

Or at least, so she thought.

Hamura hid behind a tree, watching for the perfect moment.

 _There!_

Stepping out, he walked towards Yami, he cleared his throat.

Yami whirled around, shocked, before fading to her usual annoyed face.

"So… hello, Yami-san." Hamura coughed. "So, um…"

"What is it, Hamura-sama?" Annoyed and defensive. Not good.

"I'm-er, I apologize for my previous attempts at courting you."

Yami's face took on a confused look.

"It was rash of me to demand marriage without your consent." Hamura continued, looking down in shame.

"And so, I would like to propose that we-" His words were drowned out by a deep rumble.

"Get behind me." He ordered Yami, who obeyed without hesitation.

They waited.

And waited.

Until a tank crashed through the foliage, breaking a trees.

The barrel glinted in the sunlight, towering over both of them.

"Yo!"

Hagoromo popped out the hatch and waved. Zetsu formed on his head and waved sheepishly.

"Oh," seeing both Hamura in front of Yami, Hagoromo came to a realization, "are we interrupting something?"

Not waiting for a reply, he spun the turret around and shouted "Full speed backwards, Shio-san!"

"G-got it!" A muffled voice came from the front. The tank thundered back into the forest.

Another moment silence.

" _ **I'm going to kill him.**_ " Hamura growled.

"I'll help." Yami offered, grabbing a nearby stick.

* * *

 **Please review!**


	11. The Empty Bridge

**Hi! mikutalianinja here!**

 **Being a full-time** ** **human** is time-consuming and inconvenient to story updates.**

 **Thank you for the favorites, follows, and reviews!  
**

 **Note on the dimension guessing game: I'm closing the contest-thing down, but feel free to keep on guessing! (I'll release the answers... one day.)**

 **Still looking for beta.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.**

* * *

"Ow." I fell backwards with a thud.

I had no strength to even twitch a muscle, much less dodge an assault from Hamura.

Or Zetsu's half-body-bind.

 _When did he learn to do that?_

"Stupid-stupid-why would you ever-for what reason-" Hamura half-sobbed, strangling me with a hug.

I flopped limply in his arms.

"Hamura-"

"Shut up! If you had asked-"

"Hamura-"

" **Hagoromo-nii, don't do it again.** " Zetsu piped from the half my face.

"Don't plan to." Zetsu seemed satisfied, sliding off and reforming on Hamura's left.

"You broke free." The statement made Hamura stiffen. (I, on the other hand, stayed as limp as a wet noodle.)

"And?" _How much chakra did Kaguya use- oh._

 _How the hell am I still alive?_ "I see." A pause.

The ground rumbled.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a gargantuan figure with flailing limbs. It opened its mouth, collecting chakra.

Light blue chakra flared around us, but quickly sputtered out.

I coughed. Crimson flecks splattered on Hamura's white robe and a thin trail of blood formed towards the ground.

The world blackened around the edges.

"Nii-san!" Hamura pulled me up so I was leaning on him. I had a clearer view of the Juubi, which stood still, waiting for Kaguya's order.

"It is unwise to use your chakra, Hagoromo." Kaguya turned around to face the monstrous being. "Ignore them," she commanded and flew off.

The sphere broke and was reabsorbed by the Juubi. It followed Kaguya, leaving us alone in the ruins of our village.

* * *

" **We need to get away from here; it's too risky.** " Zetsu started, scavenging for any supplies left in the ruins.

"I agree." Hamura draped me over his back and proceeded to carry me.

"Ready to go?" He asked Zetsu. Zetsu nodded and packed the supplies into a seal.

"Where did you get the seal?"

"I found those scrolls you used to practice calligraphy in." Hamura supplied.

"And then…?"

"Well… I decided to copy some and put chakra in it." He grinned sheepishly, "Some of them exploded."

 _That explained the lack of eyebrows._

 _Wait._

 _Hamura never had eyebrows._

* * *

Both Hamura and Zetsu ran into the forest.

I, as the freeloader, observed the surrounding landscape.

The trees whizzed by, blurring into a single mottled landscape.

After what felt like an eternity, we finally stopped in front of a cave.

Both Hamura and Zetsu (and by extension, me) ducked in.

The tunnel narrowed then opened up to large chamber with a small opening to the sky.

All in all, a nice place if weren't for the fact that we were hunted down by a (maybe) homicidal hominid.

Hamura let me down on a pile of blankets.

" **You need to-** "

I didn't hear the rest as I had already drift off into oblivion.

* * *

" _-y, Avery! Hey!_ "

"Whaaaaaaat?" I groaned irritably, feeling sleep-deprived. I opened my eyes.

Brook stared, back, concern evident in her face. Sherlock stood on the side, also worried. Paris and London stood back, allowing Brook to do whatever she needed to do

"You alright there? Feeling lightheaded? Dizziness?" Her rapid questions made my head hurt.

I started to sit up, "I think I'm fine-ow!" a sharp pain in the chest made me fall back.

"Mmhm…" Sighing, she walked towards the door. "Keep Avery there, don't let him get up."

"Got it." London stepped up, eyeing me as if I would spontaneously grow horns.

 _Didn't I already have horns?_

 _Whoops, wrong world._

* * *

After being hooked up to a plethora of machines, Brook deemed that there wasn't anything wrong.

She left. The other people had left, citing something about not wanting to be a bother.

I was left alone to ponder my thoughts.

 _Why am I back here?_

I knew this was an illusion. Why did Kaguya bother to stick me into another one if I already escaped once?

 _ **Unless…**_

 _Unless, of course, this was the real life, thank you_ so _much, mysterious voice._

People could survive car-crashes, that was true, but I knew I died in this world.

That was the grounding fact, the only constant I had within the midst of all this mind/world-bending.

People don't come back from the dead.

 _The question is,_ why _am I so sure I died?_

* * *

I woke up.

The afternoon sun filtered through the canopy, lighting the cave with a reddish hue.

I sat up and stretched. The aching in my limbs had subsided, but it still lingered.

" **Hagoromo-nii!** " Zetsu waved at me while tending a small fire. The smell of cooking fish made my stomach growl.

" **Want one?** " he offered a fish.

"Yeah, thanks." I sat down and accepted the slightly burned fish on a stick and bit in.

* * *

Zetsu stayed silent until I finished.

" **Can I ask you something?** " He fidgeted a bit, looking somewhat uncomfortable.

"Sur-"

" **Why didn't you break yourself out?!** "

The question echoed the barren walls. It had grown darker, with the light from the fire becoming brighter with each passing minute.

"I-"

" **None of this would've happened if you had just broken free-** "

"Zetsu-"

" **We could've been further along-** "

"In-"

" **People wouldn't have _died_ just because they helped us-** "

I stopped trying to get his attention.

" ** _You_ could have protected us, instead of being our enemy-** "

I stayed silent.

" **AND HAMURA-NII WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO KILL YOU!** "

 _Wait what?_

* * *

 _I died… again?_

Glancing down, I saw a burnt hole in the cloth, exposing my bare chest.

 _Oh._

I had already died once (did I though?), so dying again wasn't as… traumatizing.

A small sniffle drew my attention.

Zetsu started shaking.

" **Why...didn't you? Aren't you the strong one? Aren't you Hagoromo-nii? You're the big brother… so why didn't you protect us?** "

The cave, now completely devoid of sunlight, grew colder.

"Zetsu…"

I moved closer to him and hugged him.

He flinched (just a little bit, but enough notice- _oh Kami, what did Kaguya make me do?_ ) but relaxed.

"I'm sorry." I started, then paused.

Gathering my thoughts, I continued. "Kaguya showed me a world where everyone was happy. It was almost as if it were real life, and both of you guys were there."

 ** _Lies._**

"It was a peaceful world," I continued, ignoring the other voice, "something that I had thought was real."

Zetsu looked up at me, eyes locking onto mine.

"You're right though, I should've known that it was false, I should've been there for both of you."

I sighed.

"But I can't always be the strongest, Zetsu, I'm not infallible. No one is. Not even-"

" **-gods.** " Zetsu finished, recalling my words from over a year ago.

He smiled (a small smile, but a smile nonetheless) and hugged back.

"NII-SAN!"

Out of nowhere, Hamura joined the hug fest, which quickly turned into a three-way wrestling match.

And all was right in the world.

* * *

Or not.

I was awake (or maybe asleep?) and sitting upright on the familiar hospital bed, staring out the window.

" _Avery!_ "

"What?" Irritated, I turned my head...

Only to meet face-to-face with Kaguya.

 _Fuck._

* * *

 **Please review!  
**

 **thanzintay.2000: Indeed.**

 **klariza-riza: Thank you!**

 **Maxine, Kloness, MonochromeJoker29: Thank you! I'll try to shorten the time between updates.  
**


	12. To Be Continued

**Hi! Paperless Cat here!**

 **As you can tell, I changed my name.**

 **As to why I didn't update sooner...**

 **Well, life issues tend to get into the way of things.**

 ** **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.****

* * *

There was no way I was getting out of this alive.

Instead of decapitating (or stabbing or, really, any action accompanied with murderous intent), Kaguya sat down on the edge of the bed.

"There is something I must confess." She started, brushing her clothes out of wrinkles.

"What is it?"

"I had known that you are not from this world," Kaguya stated plainly, "from the moment you were born, you had always been… odd."

"Ah."

"Your chakra had been mixed with something foreign, an otherworldly feel different from my own."

"Okay."

She seemed to sigh, but continued, "You are still trapped in the illusion." Kaguya grabbed my arm and drew a sharp fingernail over the skin.

"Ow!" I ripped my arm away from her grasp, inspecting the area.

Instead of blood, paper-like fragments peeled off and floated away, dissolving into nothing.

It spread across my body, revealing my current life's form. Once all of it (whatever it was) was gone, she pulled me into standing position. I stood shakily, only just having the feeling of _legs_ come back.

Strange.

"What the-" Brook barged in and gasped. "Who the hell-"

More piled in, all had wide eyes and disbelieving faces.

"Who are you?"

"What _are_ you?"

Kaguya's face darkened.

"Wait n-"

" **Begone.** " With a single word, the scene exploded into the same paper confetti. All that was left was white.

She turned to me, her eyes blazing. "I see," she softly murmured, words filled with sorrow.

"The time will come when you must decide."

* * *

Something punched me in the gut.

Hard.

I wheezed, my eyes snapping open. Rolling onto my feet, I had to immediately dodge a chakra-infused punch.

"Hamura?"

Hamura's eyes were open but unseeing. The glassy reflection from the dim starlight was all I needed to determine that he was still asleep.

"Hamura, wake up."

Another dodged punch. _Not awake then._

"Nii-san… stop…" He half-murmured, half-whimpered.

I froze, long enough for him to roundhouse kick me into the wall.

Something snapped inside of me.

 _Great, a broken rib._

Staggering into a defensive position, as Hamura charged.

Despite the pain, I parried his other blows. They were somewhat sloppy (he _was_ half-asleep), but hit hard.

"Hamura, wake up!"

Hamura stopped. Thinking he was awake, I cautiously approached him.

"Hamura…?"

"I'm sorry, nii-san."

The air crackled and a moment too late, pain shot through my left side.

Blood stained the faded white cloth. I went down on one knee, clutching my bleeding side.

The glassy look faded away. Hamura stared at me.

He then crumpled, falling down with a loud thump. A few spasms wracked his body, accompanied by sniffles.

I ignored the sharp stab of pain in favor of comforting the sobbing Hamura.

"I-it's my fault."

I stayed silent, letting him speak his mind.

"I-I should've been there with y-you. Instead, I st-stayed inside."

He took a deep breath.

"I can't stop seeing it. I always dream about it. The time that I-I-" Hamura broke down into silent sobs, burrowing into my left shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorryI'msorry-"

"Hamura."

He looked at me. "It's not your fault."

"But-but-"

"You were mourning." I patted him on the head, albeit somewhat awkwardly, " what right do I have to pull you away from the one you loved?"

Hamura didn't reply, but he had stopped shaking.

"If there was a fault, it was mine. I wasn't powerful enough to protect you two."

He was asleep, leaning heavily on me. I gently lowered him onto the floor and stood up.

Only to fall back down due to dizziness.

 _Right. Bleeding side._

* * *

After a copious amount of bandages and chakra, I sat on the ledge overlooking the cave.

Pinks and reds bled into the sky, before followed by a light blue. A dark silhouette of the Juubi blocked the sun from view, but not it's rays.

I looked down. Hamura was sleeping peacefully, along with Zetsu, who had returned from his night-time watch. Both of them were curled up together.

Suddenly, a sense of solitude washed over me.

 _They have grown up so much._

I on the other hand, seemed stagnant. Twenty years had passed, yet…

 _I haven't changed at all._

Part of my conscious seemed to want to cling on to my past life, my (somewhat faded) knowledge of this world's original timeline.

I had wanted this world to just be a story.

I had wanted the timeline to have some semblance of what I had known.

(Well, I didn't want all that death, but that was a problem for future-me—if I was somehow still alive.)

But now…

Given how much I've flopped around in this one, that was impossible.

 _The time will come when you must choose._

It was obvious that the choice was not world based; Kaguya had made that clear.

I looked back at the horizon. The sun had risen to the point where it peeked over the Juubi's head, almost like a crown of light. Pastel colors painted the sky, covering the remains of stars. A light breeze ruffled the trees, along with the first songs from birds.

 _How much have I missed since I was born?_

(Clearly, a lot, seeing how I had the perception of a rock.)

"Nii-san?"

A call from below drew my attention back to the cave. I jumped down, landing a few feet away.

Hamura was awake, his eyes focused on me. "Are you alright?" He asked, sounding worried.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I helped him up. Zetsu, on the other hand, was still asleep, so he clung onto Hamura like a slug.

" **Nooooo… I want more sleeeeeeeeep…** "

We both looked at him, then laughed.

" **Shut uuuuuuuuup…** "

It was then I realized how much I wanted to preserve this moment, and many chances I hoped I would have in the future.

 _I think I know my choice._

* * *

"Have you decided?" Kaguya floated in front of us.

It was time.

I nodded, stepping in front of both Hamura and Zetsu.

"Hope."

* * *

 **There will be a slight timeskip between chapters.  
**

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